How to become a successful reseller

Racking your brains to try and come up with a money-making side hustle, or even a venture that leads to becoming your main income? Then we may have just what you’re after!

The volume of retail returns is at an all-time high and much of this stock cannot simply be resold. Rather than it heading towards landfill, which is hugely damaging both to the environment and to retailers’ profits, a significant amount makes its way to the secondary market.

This is where we – and you – come in.

Our auctions present you with the perfect opportunity to get your hands on products from household brands at a fraction of their RRPs by buying them in pallets, separating the goods and selling them onwards.

Choose your stock

The best place to visit are our retail returns auctions. As you’ll see, we always have a number of these live, with a minimum of two regular ones a week of raw returns sourced from a major UK retailer ending every Tuesday and Sunday evening. The pallets are packed in categories, these include small domestic products, toys, home furnishings and so on.

Raw returns means they are unchecked, so you’ll know what products each pallet contains, but you won’t know what condition each item is until you unpack your purchase. So, you could get brand new items or broken ones that could be used for their parts and everything in-between. It’s a gamble but that’s half the fun of bidding and it’s how you can get things at such low prices.

You’ll also find auctions of graded returns so as well as knowing what the product is, you’ll have more information on what condition it will be in.

Perhaps you have skills that you could utilise to fix up certain things, such as electrical products or furniture. You’ll be on to a winner in those categories if so!

Place your bids

If you haven’t already done so, you’ll need to register to bid. It’s a quick and easy process and once completed, means you’re ready to get in on the bidding action. We always advise you to decide on a budget before you begin. Think about what you can afford to invest, take a look at how much previous pallets have gone for and research potential resale value. It’s not an exact science of course but it’s a sensible approach. Deciding your limit before embarking on your buying journey means you’re less likely to get carried away and spend more than you’re comfortable with. If you get outbid, we’ll let you know and you can decide then if you want to bid more. If you win, you pay and arrange delivery. If you’re a first timer and need any help our lovely team are available on our live chat function so just shout with any questions you may have.

Examine your buys

When your pallet arrives and you get to open it up and find out the all-important condition of what you’ve purchased, you’ll be clearer about the resale potential. Some of the items may not need anything doing to them, some you may need to dedicate some TLC to so that they’re in a condition you can sell them on.

Get reselling!

You have various options for your route to market your goods. Obviously, we would encourage you to come back to us but that’s up to you. If you do list with William George, you know now the website and will find the process really easy. It is also FREE to list with us so the profit you make here is for you alone!

Try and include as much information and as many quality photographs as you can. If something isn’t perfect, be honest about what’s wrong with it so your potential bidders can make an informed decision on whether they want to buy it or not. If you tell and show it how it is, you should have happy customers. You may want to add a reserve price which is your call, but bear in mind that no reserve is a very popular option with bidders so don’t rule it out without considering it.

Depending on how many items you’re selling, you may want to take part in a collective auction with other sellers, or to hold your own dedicated sale. Either way it’s still free!

Think marketing

We’ll market your auction for you, but you might like to factor in taking out a paid for package which guarantees you a lot of exposure to a keen and loyal audience. If you wish to invest a budget towards this, starting at £250 our marketing team will put together activities tailored towards your target market encompassing Facebook campaigns, emails, banners etc.

So, why not try your luck with your first pallet purchase and take it from there? Find out more about our retail returns auctions here.